Milk generally consists of water, fat, protein, and lactose. Dairy cows, provide the vast majority of milk for human consumption. However, milk from goats, sheep, water buffalo and reindeer is consumed in many countries.
Milking parlors are used worldwide for milking animals, typically animals with two milk glands (e.g., goats and sheep) or four milk glands (e.g. cows and buffaloes). The parlors may generally be divided into two types: conventional or “semi-automatic” milking parlors and robotic milking parlors. These two types of milking parlors could differ significantly in regards to architecture, operating procedures, labor intensity, automation, capital investment, degree of analysis of the milk and the ability to separate the milk according to the analyzed properties.
In conventional or “semi-automatic” milking parlors, a milking cluster includes two or four teat cups connected to a milk claw via two or four short tubes and is manually attached to each individual animal. From an ergonomic standpoint the claw weight and dimensions are adapted for manual handling. U.S. Pat. No. 4,537,152 discloses a configuration in which a milking cluster is configured so that each teat cup in the cluster is attached to a corresponding teat of the animal. The milk obtained from the teats attached to a specific cluster flows to a single common milk collecting chamber which is an integral part of the milk claw. The milk accumulated in and which eventually exits from the chamber is referred to as “composite milk” because milk from all teats of the animal is mixed together in the chamber. Typically, the composite milk flows out of the milk claw through a single tube to a sensor unit. The sensor unit is able to identify various parameters of milk, such as milk quantity, fat content, protein content, presence of red blood cells, phagocytes, hemoglobin and many others. Commonly, the conventional or “semi-automatic” milking parlor includes one milk sensor unit per stall fed from a single milk line leading from the milking claw common milk collecting chamber. If the sensor does not detect any abnormalities in the milk the composite milk flows to a main milk line which carries milk from a plurality of sensor units (i.e., stalls) to a desired milk collection facility.
However, in many situations milk from various glands of the same animal, differ in quality (fat and protein content) and/or sometimes one or more glands are infected. In such situations it is advantageous to sense each gland separately and if necessary divert the milk obtained from a problematic teat to one or more different milk lines.
Robotic milking parlors, may or may not include a milk claw, however the milk claw usually serves in these parlors as part of the robotic teat cup attaching system as described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,171,883. Commonly, and as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,425,345 and 6,948,449 teat cups are attached to animals by a robot and each gland is milked separately. In the robotic system, in cases where milk from different glands differs in the quantity of measured components—for example, protein and/or fat, the obtained milk could be diverted as desired so that two or more milk parameters may be either combined or kept separate.
The costs of robotic milking parlors are higher than conventional parlors, require more space and different architecture, and usually are different in design from conventional parlors. Installation of robotic systems in existing conventional parlors is not straightforward and requires major changes in infrastructure, parlor design and milking routines as well as investment of capital.
To date, conventional milking, which is the most common way of milking in the world, does not include quarter milking. A milking system for quarter milking in conventional milking parlors requires an operator to handle each teat cup separately which is more time intensive and labor intensive. The cost of current sensor/diverting systems is high and the amount of tubes required to transport the quarter milk from each animal make this option not cost effective. Consequently, quarter milking in conventional milking parlors is very expensive, unfriendly to operator and complicated. The solutions currently available on the market that attempt to provide the benefits of quarter milking in conventional milking parlors, while avoiding the costly investment in robots and without changing parlor design and architecture are insufficient.